Someone who writes a column for a newspaper provides an article that expresses his or her viewpoint on a regular basis, such as a column about local politics which appears in the Sunday edition.

If your boss says, “I’m going to give you a column!” you may be getting a regular writing gig, or you may be getting a large pillar typically used to support a building. (You’ll know which it is when you see it.)Column also refers to something that resembles a pillar or stack, such as a column of smoke, or columns of numbers that must be added. Column also describes lines of text that form long rectangles on a page, separated by a thin line of space.

Primary Meanings of column

a line of units following one after another
an article giving opinions or perspectives
Full Definitions of column

n a line of units following one after another

Type of:
Indian file, file, single file
a line of persons or things ranged one behind the other

n a vertical array of numbers or other information

“he added a column of numbers”
Type of:
an orderly arrangement

n a vertical cylindrical structure standing alone and not supporting anything (such as a monument)

Washington Monument
a stone obelisk built in Washington in 1884 to honor George Washington; 555 feet tall
totem pole
a tribal emblem consisting of a pillar carved and painted with totemic figures; erected by Indian tribes of the northwest Pacific coast
Type of:
construction, structure
a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts

n (architecture) a tall vertical cylindrical structure standing upright and used to support a structure

show 8 types...
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atlas, telamon
a figure of a man used as a supporting column
a supporting column carved in the shape of a person
the central pillar of a circular staircase
pile, piling, spile, stilt
support column
a column that supports a heavy weight
lally, lally column
support column consisting of a steel cylinder filled with concrete
sheath pile, sheet pile, sheet piling
a pile in a row of piles driven side by side to retain earth or prevent seepage
Type of:
upright, vertical
a vertical structural member as a post or stake

n anything that approximates the shape of a column or tower

“the test tube held a column of white powder”
pillar, tower
(geology) a column of weathered and unusually shaped rock
Type of:
form, shape
the spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance

n any tubular or pillar-like supporting structure in the body

Type of:
skeletal structure
any structure created by the skeleton of an organism

n a page or text that is vertically divided

“the newspaper devoted several columns to the subject”
“the bookkeeper used pages that were divided into columns
Type of:
text, textual matter
the words of something written


chromatography column
Type of:
tube, tubing

n an article giving opinions or perspectives

editorial, newspaper column
agony column
a newspaper column devoted to personal problems
Type of:
nonfictional prose forming an independent part of a publication

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